Alternative Development programmes, aimed at encouraging peasants to switch from growing illicit drugs-related crops, play an important role in UN drug control strategies. The record of success, however, is a questionable one. Decades of efforts to reduce global drug supply using a combination of developmental and repressive means, managed to shift production from one country to another, but have failed in terms of global impact. TNI argues for delinking alternative development from the threat of forced eradication and law enforcement and guaranteeing peasants the support required for a sustainable alternative future.
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Alternative development should be unconditional
Martin JelsmaStatement of the Transnational Institute
Commission on Narcotic Drugs 52nd Session, High-level Segment
Round Table D - 12 March 2009, 2.30-5.30 pm
Countering illicit drug traffic and supply, and alternative developmentMartin Jelsma of TNI expressed the disappointment with the agreed texts on alternative development in the Political Declaration and Plan of Action at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) dedicated to the 1998 UNGASS review. No consensus could be reached on the issue of drug control conditionality in development assistance, despite the outcomes of expert evaluations that recommended to "not make development assistance conditional on reductions in illicit drug crop cultivation”, and to "ensure that eradication is not undertaken until small-farmer households have adopted viable and sustainable livelihoods and that interventions are properly sequenced."
He further referred to the outcomes of the first World Forum of farmers of coca, cannabis and opium poppy from Latin America, Africa and Asia.
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Withdrawal Symptoms in the Golden Triangle
A Drugs Market in Disarray
Transnational Institute (TNI)
January 2009Drug control agencies have called the significant decline in opium production in Southeast Asia over the past decade a 'success story'. The latest report of the Transnational Institute (TNI). based on in-depth research in the region, casts serious doubts on this claim noting that Southeast Asia suffers from a variety of 'withdrawal symptoms' that leave little reason for optimism.
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The ATS Boom in Southeast Asia (PDF)
Conclusions and recommendations (PDF)
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Alternative Developments, Economic Interests and Paramilitaries in Uraba
Moritz TenthoffTNI Drug Policy Briefing Nr. 27
September 2008The following document analyses how the Forest Warden Families Programme and the Productive Projects of the Presidential Programme Against Illegal Crops in Colombia have been used to legalise paramilitary structures and implement mega agro-industrial projects in the Uraba Region.
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EU New position on Alternative Development
Open-ended intergovernmental expert working group on international cooperation on the eradication of illicit drug crops and on alternative development
UNODC/CND/2008/WG.3/CRP.4
Vienna, July 2-4, 2008The “Open-ended intergovernmental expert working group on international cooperation on the eradication of illicit drug crops and on alternative development” was one of the five working groups that were organised as part of the UNGASS review process. The working groups prepared for the high-level segment of the 52nd session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in March 2009. The EU experts present at the meeting drafted a new text with the key points to be included in the conclusion of the working group, complementing the existing EU position on alternative development (CORDROGRUE 44, 18 May 2006). The two texts were combined in one document as a new EU position on alternative development.
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Broken promises and coca eradication in Peru
Ricardo SoberónTNI Drug Policy Briefing Nr. 11
March 2005The forced crop eradication policy implemented by the Peruvian government over the past 25 years has failed. The official strategy has exacerbated social conflicts; contributed to various types of subversive violence; jeopardized local economies, also affecting the national economy; and destroyed forests as crops have become more scattered. Worst of all, it has not resolved any of the underlying causes of drug trafficking, such as poverty, marginalisation and government neglect.
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Cross Purposes
Alternative Development and Conflict in Colombia
Ricardo VargasTNI Drugs and Conflict Debate Paper 7
June 2003The anti-drug strategy in Colombia limits the establishment of the basic political conditions necessary to attain the socio-economic goals of alternative development in the midst of war. President Álvaro Uribe's strategy only serves to make the ground fertile for more violence and instability.
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Alternative development: an introduction
An introduction for the 2003 UNGASS mid-term review
Transnational Institute (TNI)
March 2003Alternative Development programmes, aimed at encouraging peasants to switch from growing illicit drugs-related crops, play an important role in UN drug control strategies. The record of success, however, is a questionable one. Decades of efforts to reduce global drug supply using a combination of developmental and repressive means, managed to shift production from one country to another, but have failed in terms of global impact.
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A Failed Balance
Alternative Development and Eradication
Martin Jelsma Ricardo VargasTNI Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 4
March 2002In the area of failed alternative development (AD) projects, the Andean region has its sorry share to contribute. The constant peasant uprisings n the Bolivian Chapare and the social tensions rife among cocalero peasants in the South of Colombia are woeful indicators of such failure. In January, TNI attended a conference in Germany, hosted by the German government and UNDCP. The purpose was to critically evaluate experiences in AD and draw conclusions for its future.
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Alternative Development and Drug Control
A Critical Assessment
Martin JelsmaKeynote speech International Conference on The Role of Alternative Development in Drug Control and Development Cooperation
Feldafing, Germany, January 8, 2002What can Alternative Development interventions realistically hope to achieve, given the growing demand for illicit drugs and the continuing prevalence of rural poverty. Non-conditionality for the concept, harm reduction for the production side, and open mindedness for an honest debate are, in the view of Martin Jelsma, necessary steps to “prevent Alternative Development as the Sacred Heart in the global drugs policy from beeing blown apart by the roaring helicopters on the horizon”. Martin Jelsma gave his critical assessment of Alternative Development at the International Conference on The Role of Alternative Development in Drug Control and Development Cooperation.
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Caught in the Crossfire
Developing countries, the UNDCP, and the war on drugs
Tom BlickmanA Joint publication of the Transnational Institute (TNI) and the Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR)
June 1998Drugs control is one of the most controversial issues of the late twentieth century. US-led efforts to wage a ‘war on drugs' have focused on wiping out production in developing countries, rather than tackling the demand for drugs in rich countries. Over time, eradication strategies have become increasingly militarised, and have led to human rights abuses and environmental degaradation. And the war has failed. The amount of drugs produced and drugs-linked crops cultivated have not decreased.
This briefing is published in the run-up to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs, to be held in New York in June 1998. The UNGASS provides a rare opportunity to re-think current drugs efforts. Member states are being asked to endorse a plan, known as SCOPE, for the eradication of drugs-linked crops by 2008. Is SCOPE viable? And what impact would it have on poor farmers who grow drugs-linked crops to survive?Download the briefing (PDF)
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